Figure 1.

Functional roles of heat shock proteins (HSP). The evolutionarily conserved molecular chaperones of the HSP70 (HSPA) family fulfill an essential role in maintaining protein quality control in a variety of cell types. Such protective activities center on the ability of the chaperones to assist the correct (re)folding of nascent and denatured proteins, thereby preventing their unwanted aggregation and functional inactivation. However, HSP70s also play an important role in facilitating protein-protein interactions, the assembly of multimeric protein complexes, and in the transport of proteins across intracellular membranes.